okay. everyone ready to get started? first i would like to thank everyone for coming today. it's an important day. before we get started i would like to bring the mayor up and talk about the importance of this contract and these hotel members, the team and the city of san francisco. it's a very positive day. so mayor, c'mon

up. >> thank you, michael. first, i want to thank all the work force that are standing behind me, the men and women who make this hotel a success for the city and i would like to thank you for your leadership and last time i was in the same room with mike casey we were announcing the warriors deal. a lot of good paying jobs. today is about our no. 1 industry? san francisco which is tourism and the hotels and their conclusion with the labor union to come to an agreement that extends perhaps 5-and-a-half years of agreeing to a labor contract for all the 750 union members working in this hotel.

you know, san francisco is incredible. i just came back from the international city cities of cork ireland, paris, france. they marvel at how well we have done things here in our great city and keep it going and remake it. they also have a sense that anytime their members come here, they are experiencing a huge amount of warmth from people who serve them. i know the quality of our hotels is one of the main stays of why we are such a really and successful tourist center for all over the world, not just in san francisco or california, but all over the world. these workers who have in past years probably didn't have such smooth negotiations in the past, we are reminded of that through some couple of decades

where everybody struggled, but it's quite apropos that we have stressed the important collaboration of talking with people and making sure we understand their needs and necessities early on that not only are they going to have wages but a health plan and pension for years to come. when you have hotel workers, working class people who can take care of their family and themselves and have contributed in the workplace contributed to the quality of the whole city and affects other industries as well. i know that being the mayor of the city for two years. i know with repercussions that this agreement has with other hotels and other industries that want to be successful in the city. you have to treat your workers

with the highest quality their deserve and when they are happy, we are all happy and i'm happy. that's the goal of being in san francisco is that you have to have a happy work force, you have to have them looking that they don't have doubt and they are taking care of their families and taking care of visitors. this hotel is the largest hotel in san francisco, 1900 rooms and we are going to use them up is as much as we can when we invite organizations like the warriors to come or america's cup or the super bowl bid that we are putting together. this is going to be one of the center hotels and i will be the first to say that i'm very proud of this work force, of what you have done today for taking care of not only yourselves, but your families and that you are

willing to take care of this city and my kudos to mr. casey and mr. dundey. and how important it is that we do find our way forward in agreements particularly significant agreements like this labor agreement between the hotel workers and the hotels themselves. this is an incredible part of our economy, but also an incredible part of who we are as a city. the hotel is really the first thing that a lot of visitors against -- get a sense of the warmth that they feel everyday. i have felt that going to hotels world class hotels. you find people working with a smile because they have confidence that they are taking care of themselves as well. congratulations, everybody. congratulations to the city of san francisco, too.

>> we'll have the team members. i just like to say on behalf of the mayor and local team members, this deal is good for city of san francisco. it takes care of our team members, it takes care of our guest. but what's going on, the building, construction, the new companies coming to the city, our goal is to welcome them and if we have labor peace, we have a positive contract for our team members, they will feel comfortable coming in time and time again. if anyone hasn't seen the cranes coming into the city, we want to welcome them as well, the hilton san francisco union square. we want to welcome them and be a part of it and the city. thank you.

>> i'm mike casey, president of the united local, i want to thank you mayor for the leadership in not just creating and bringing new jobs to san francisco but making sure they are good jobs, quality jobs, where workers can retire in dignity for their families. mr. mayor you have been showing that leadership since you have been appointed. we want to encourage you in advancing those principles. thanks very much. and then to the hilton, mike an did dunne and the leadership who took a chance here. they took quite a rest while the rest of the industry was actually preparing for a major war with our union over the course of the next, what would have been probably the next year or two, the hilton

corporation said maybe there is a way we can avoid the drama and turmoil that is brought to this city all too frequently because of concessionary bargaining that some employers try to impose on the union. so, after several months we have reached an early agreement, our contract doesn't expire until august 2013, so the hilt on and our union reached and agreement. i think this shows a commitment to go the highroad. often there are too many hotels in this city that want to go the low road, the meridian and the hyatt corporation have been notorious for the way they

treat their workers. mike dunne has shown corporations there is a better way of guaranteeing customer service and for workers that provide that customer service. this contract provides three things: no. 1, addresses food and beverage issues that is going to be an issue with this hotel where we have to get some of those under control and make sure those restaurants are successful. no. 2, this agreement strengthens and secure our job provision in the contract. strengthens the language called success or ship which guarantees the workers keep their contract and jobs. no. 3, most importantly what it

does is provide within the term of the contract in each of the next 5 years, the right for the union and the hotel to make sure that workers are going to get fully paid health care, pension, spare wages. the way that that will come about is we have negotiated $6.92 for the term of the contract that averages about 4 percent each year of the agreement. the way the agreement operates is the union will convene meetings with our rank and file leadership each year and prior to july 14th of each year, the leadership after following up on meetings with our members will determine how much money is appropriate for health care, how much money is appropriated to other benefits, how much money will be appropriated for pension and how much money will be allocated for wages. so,

this contract secures all those things, but above all else what it does is it allows our union in 6 cities toronto, boston, chicago, los angeles, hawaii and san francisco, it gives those 6 cities where we have labor peace. this is a 6-city coordinated effort where we have negotiated with the hilton corporation for a 5 year agreement that will allow all those cities and elsewhere to focus on the unorganized. there are thousands of workers that do this work. unfortunately those workers don't have health care for their families, those workers don't have a pension or retirement security and are often minimum wage. this allows to us focus our energies and

resources to give them the kind of voice that workers and union properties have. that's the main reason why this local too has embraced this effort and i want to thank the rank and file hilton.99 percent workers voted to ratify this. thank you for being here. [ applause ] >> what i want to do is introduce amy wong who is a room cleaner, she's one of the leaders of the hotel, jacob is going to speak, he's a doorman and guadalupe chavez who is a room cleaner and a member of our executive board. >> hello, my name is amy win.

i have worked as a housekeeper for many years. health insurance is the most important part of the contract for all of us. first this contract we can keep our family health care. now that we hilton workers have a great contract, we are going to start with the other hotel workers in san francisco to make sure their union is strong. thank you. >> my name is jacob, i'm a doorman for the last 22 years. thank you for all coming for this great event. thank you, mike, for putting this contract, finish earlier than we thought. thank you very much. we appreciate that. as

you know our health care, now the health care is available with other benefits so we can have our time to organize our members which can make us stronger without any problem. thank you. we are really happy. it's very important now we are going to stand the same idea which is our goal to improve our service. we have no problem over this. thank you for all coming here. [ applause ] >> hi, my name is guadalupe chavez. i have been working here for 32 years. as a worker in the local too, we have a lot of struggles, many long struggles to have a good contract. that's the reason to

have a standard for another hotels. that is today i'm happy to have a good contract and with our contract, it benefits security wages we have a vision and we can organize another union hotels. this is going to be the no. 1 because they have the same right to have the same benefits and rights that we have. thank you very much to be here and thank you, mike. we appreciate it. thank you mike casey. we love everybody. [ applause ] i would like to thank everybody for coming today. especially the team members. we truly appreciate it. we are going to open up for questions. if anyone has any questions?

>> we are in the process of talking to other hotels right now. we've already initiated some talks with the fair mount corporation and we are optimistic about that and we are also going to be reaching out very soon to the star wood corporation which has 4 hotels and marriott which also has 4. we are going to be starting with marriott, fair mount and star wood and the other corporations that have large presence here in san francisco. >> this is a pattern that we have set and hopefully they

will see what we have without a struggle. over the course of 2004-2011 during that 7 year span, the members of local 2 were engaged in constant struggle for those years, we had strikes, lock outs, boycotts, the industry was in quite a turmoil. it's quite a turn around when you look at those years, we had fights with almost every hotel in this city for 4 of those 7 years. in 2011 when we settled, that started to set a different pattern. the hilton showed leadership at that time and we are still

dealing with the contract from the 2007 settlement. this will start us on the next phase. >> i thought it seemed familiar. >> the workers packet, where it goes [inaudible] >> we have several unions that that's the way it works at this point. it's not unique to say. it's something different that we've done . i think over the last years with our contract between the hotels and here in the city but other unions that work in this building and in the city, that's a pretty common practice. in our union, we have not used it very often. we've only used it with a

handful of employers in san francisco. but, kind of industry wide city agreements we have not done this except maybe if you go back 15-20 years ago there might have been handful. the reason that it's so critical right now is because of the uncertain nature of what's going to happen with health care. with the affordable care act coming in next year and the exchanges which will provide that health care for millions of californians who don't have health care right now, it's expected that the health care industry is going to be changing quite a bit and we are not sure exactly, it's very impossible to predict what that's going to do. if you poll our members, the number 1 issue

is health care for our members and retirees. that is the no. 1 issue in our considerations in our discussions over the course of each year and our members will make those determinations as to what the priorities are and whether or not more money should be allocated to health care or wages or pension or health care, wages come first. that's going to be their decision. >> can you talk about the success or ship language? >> yes. what it does is two things. it improves our security when a hotel transfers with relation to subcontracting. new owners can't come in and subcontract which we've got problems with other cities outside of

california. although increasingly it's happening in california too. the hyatt corporation is a champion of this. they contract subworkers. they through in boston a hundred workers out on the street and replaced them with temporary workers at minimum wage. this is a problem we sometimes see some hotel companies doing when a company changes hands. so a, it protects us against an event of a sale and strengthens the language with regard to bankruptcy. it suspends the no contract law. if we need to fight a company or hotel and strike in the middle of the contract to protect our jobs, we have the ability to do that. the no strikes clause

notwithstanding. >> okay. if there are no other questions, i would like to thank everyone for coming today. we look forward to the next five years, mike. [ applause ] >> good morning, everybody,

thank you for joining us this morning, in the bill gram auditor um and we are joined this morning by these gentleman up here but i wanted to especially thank our district attorney george gescon for joining us and being part of this wonderful effort that we are announcing today with our technology community and certainly with the families of sandy hook. i would like to thank the families who flew all the way here from newtown, connecticut for joining us here today in san francisco. and while you are far away from home, i hope that you feel welcomed in our city. as a father of two girls myself, i can't imagine the pain and grief that you have suffered these past three months. and i have profound respect for your courage and for your commitment, for turning this grief into action. the tragic and horrifying events in sandy hook elementary

school, touched every american, a tragedy of this magnitude brings along with it the pain, the shock, and the disbelief. and it forces all of us to ask the question how can we prevent such terrible events? how do we protect our children? our youth, our residents? for san francisco, it is very important for us to continue to have an open dialogue regarding gun violence so that we can answer these questions ourselves. today, we honored the three-month anniversary of the tragic mass shootings at sandy hook, elementary school, with technology leaders from san francisco and all over the bay area, joining the sandy hook promise. the launch, the promises innovation initiative and i'm honored to joi